Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

Happy to answer, although really, how we conduct our private test isn't generally intended for external consumption.

We asked testers prior to releasein April to indicate if they wished to continue testing. We said that we would be reducing the test numbers at some point after testing. We should have done it in early May, but with the release, updates, business travel, and more, we didn't. I checked back frequently, and we're fairly confident that all questions were answered and all emails of confirmation were properly recorded.

Last week, in preparation for Chapter 2 testing, we closed the accounts of those who had not confirmed. This was by far the largest group that was culled from the active tester list. We also removed those who said they were no longer interested. We put on "hold" those who asked to take a break. ANd then, we collectively reviewed the contribution of each and every tester remaining on the list.

This was a committee review, involving a significant number of people. It was never a single person's decision. I've seen some comments about "I was dropped because Gaile doesn't like me" from people whom I don't even know. The decision to drop a tester was made if they were (1) inactive in the test forums (why be in a test if you're not going to contribute?) and (2) if they were not attending All Call Sessions (not super-secret sessions, but regularly scheduled and posted sessions). We gave a lot of leeway for those who were extraordinary in one but not the other and of course valued testers in other areas of the world were given a lot of dispensation because attendance at 3:00 AM test sessions is just asking too much!

Were a few who signed up to continue dropped? Yes. Why? Well, probably because they weren't making a contribution.

Was any group booted for being on one side of an issue or another? No. No group was dropped at all, only individuals.

Was someone dropped because he was passionately (something), like PvP, PvE, collector, explorer, whatever? Absolutely not! We want testers of all kinds, and we intend to keep the good ones as long as we can! Those who have engaged in unacceptable behavior in our forums -- the sort you've seen a lot of here like flamewars, attacks, and excessive rudeness -- are simply not worth the strife and cannot justify their continued access on the vague hope that they might actually have something of value to contribute. In the case of the few (emphasis few) closed for cause, the signal-to-noise ratio was simply unacceptably high.

Why no personal emails? Time. We asked guild leaders to contact their body of players, rather than taking the time to send out mass numbers of emails to individuals who were inactive or disinterested. I'm not sure there could be a lot of mystery, really.

We will grow the alpha test in the future. We will do our best to maintain high standards and we will focus on bringing in as balanced and as knowledgable a group as we can. We'll communicate, as we always have, the expectations as far as forum and test session attendance. We will include representatives from all sides of the gameplay discussion, and we will always do our best to provide a good place for discussion, a responsiveness to input, and a respect for every tester we have on board.